Sunday, April 13, 2014

Tribes: The Dog Years

Tribes: The Dog
Years

Written
by Michael Geszel & Peter Spinetta, Art by Inaki Miranda

This
thick wedge of a book (landscape-style orientation, that is, pages
that are wider than they are tall) made an instant, eye-catching
impression. The story is a somewhat familiar one, though given a few
new twists and turns. I found it similar in some ways to the chapter
of “John Redlantern” I read last year, which took place in the
distant future. Humanity had moved on to other planets than Earth,
and the tribalism—complete with new speech patterns and vocabulary
to reflect the new planets—was youth-oriented. Tribes:
Dog Years doesn't take place
very far into the future—not much more than 20 years from now,
which is rather depressing when you think about it—and posits and
Earth that is recovering from environmental devastation. However, a
nanovirus has infected the remaining people, making the lifespan no
more than twenty-one years. One only has to think about the
child-soldiers in Africa—or Lord of the Flies, which
Tribes has the grace
to reference—to imagine what might happen. “Children raising
children” becomes manifest reality, and it gives an interesting,
pre-Columbian civilizations meet post-apocalyptic steampunk. I did
think after I finished the graphic novel that such a society would
give food for thought, as many of the concepts we cling to would be
rendered obsolete by such a relatively short lifespan. (This also
allows for the artists to extend nature in making impossibly
acrobatic and muscular teens and preteens its main characters.)

As
in many post-apocalyptic fictions of the future, there is a group of
cannibals of whom the other tribes live in terror (they are tiny,
spiny-toothed Chucky doll-lookalikes here, the Headhunters). There
is a tribe of technological-minded, sun-starved, armored geeks who
excel at clockwork. The tribe of the Sky Shadows gives us our hero,
Sundog and his girlfriend (purely platonic at this point, they can
only be 12!) Fallingstar. Sundog is represented as compassionate,
clever, open-minded, brave, and physically accomplished, which is
presumably why, with a little luck, he and Fallingstar last out their
tribe. Keesha, the last of her tribe, is motherlike and warlike at
the same time, adopting a baby Headhunter. Along with Skunktail, the
Keylock, and an “Ancient” (the only person over twenty-one in
this story, having been isolated from the nanonvirus in an underwater
city), they all have their role to play in this story.

The Dog Years is
only the first part in what I imagine is an epic story. It seems
likely that the Chief of the Headhunters, who was a Keylock for
awhile, will be back as the new Omega Tribe goes on its quest to try
to eliminate the nanonvirus from the world. However, looking at the
Soulcraft Comics website, the sequel(s) have yet to appear, which is
a shame.